I'm pretty bleeping scared about what's happening in our political climate in the US today. It bothers me every time I see that Goering quote referenced:

"Naturally the common people don't want war: Neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."

It's so maddening to have to stand by and watch, largely impotent because reasonable discourse is blocked at nearly every turn. Want to discuss things reasonably? You're a communist, you're a Nazi (??), you're just a moronic liberal, you're unpatriotic, you're this, you're that--there's a dismissal for everything. So you see things happening here, now, that are very like what Goering described at the Nuremberg Trials, and you can *see* everything going down the tubes... but nobody has figured out an effective way to stop it. Maybe we can't stop it--maybe it's gone too far. I fear for America.

The video was so disturbing I couldn't watch all of it. The women screaming on a bullhorn was so over the top I got goose bumps and my stomach was literally turning over and over.

Here's one for you: I have a bumper sticker, actually a number of them, but...it says "Rush Limbaugh does not speak for me." That's it. I was walking into the grocery store and I saw a man walking up behind me but thought nothing of it. As I reached for a cart, he tapped me on the shoulder. I turned and looked at a rather small man, with a baseball cap, sunglasses, and a Harley jacket, his woman/wife? was standing there with him. He quickly informed me that Rush did speak for him, as did O'Reilly, Hannity, and Beck. At which point I said, "I'm terribly sorry for you." He proceded to mumble and mutter and I looked around at three other women, who were also standing near the carts, for a little moral support. To my dismay they were smirking at me. It was indescribably scary. I turned around and left the store. I don't think he would have approached me had I been a male, but I don't know that for sure.

Muddle-headed blabbermouths like the uneducated, racist, drug and alcohol-addicted Glenn Beck are always prattling about "fascists" in every corner, not realizing (or caring) that he and his Republican cohorts are the true fascists. Beck, if he can read (spelling is certainly a challenge for him), should check any good dictionary and find out what a fascist REALLY is. It is a perfect description of the Republican Party of the last three decades. The most definitive characteristic of fascism is the close ruling partnership between business and government - exactly what today's Republicans proudly believe in. It is also characterized by an ultra-authoritarian central government that is both secretive and intrusive into the private beliefs, practices, and freedoms of ordinary citizens - exactly what the Bush Administration was all about. Beck goes on and on calling people "Nazis." Has he looked in the mirror lately? If I ever saw an quintessentially Aryan, racist, anti-semite, it's Glenn Beck.

Controlling information (fox news), violent expansionism for resources (Iraq), the masses beliving the cause is just (tea baggers, GOP, Conservative radio hosts)... these are all the kind of things that the Nazis did in Germany in the 1930's and 1940's, same mode of operation; different flag and moral view, same result.